The present invention relates to an industrial robot, and more particularly, to a construction of a head portion at an end of an arm thereof.
For instance, a typical multiarticulated industrial robot has a vertically movable arm at an end of another arm. When the vertically movable arm incorporates therein vertical guide means and drive motors, the total weight of the arm is increased so that a large amount of drive force is required for moving the arm. Also, various mechanical components such as a vertical movement guide and a swivelling mechanism are located at a supporting portion of an operating chuck to make the entire mechanism intricate. Furthermore, since air is introduced from the outside through a flexible tube for driving the chuck, the rotational angle of the chuck is restricted due to the twist of the tube. In addition, since the rotational or swivelling motion of the chuck is not operatively associated with the rotation of the arm, the direction of the chuck varies for each moment of the motion of the arm. Therefore, each time the correction of the direction is required and control therefor is intricate.